Wondering if there are any other home roasters here. I've been a home roaster since 2004, and my current little roaster a
I-Roast 2 is way beyond being on borrowed time; I actually used tie wire some time back to keep it in more or less "one" piece.
I haven't really keep up on current home roasters on the market, and the last roasting I did on Saturday left me certain the end was near.

I started my on line research, but if anyone else here home roasts, I'd love to know what makes you'd recommend in current production or for that matter what brands should be avoided.

I wish I could help but Swings Coffee is SO good, better than any other coffee I have ever had, that I never thought to try.

Long long ago in a land far far ...

I tried coffee roasting but found the result was mediocre mega buck per pond coffee.
I tried wine making but found the result was mediocre mega buck per bottle wine.
I tried brewing but found the result was mediocre mega buck per pint beer.

Doesn't have to be, here's my latest purchase:
==================================================================
Ordered: 1 Shipped: 1 la_minita Costa Rica La Minita Tarrazu $338.00 Size = 50lbs
==================================================================

Product Total: $338.00
Sales Tax: $0.00
Shipping: $21.99
Discount: $0.00
Surcharge: $0.00
Grand Total: $359.99
BalanceDue: $359.99

Fifty pounds lasts almost a year for us, and I'm not a master roaster, but the coffee I give away is always very well received especially by coffee lovers.

I tend to like Guatemalan, East African, Brazilian, and Vietnamese coffees more than Costa Rican.

YankeeTarheel wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:40 pm I tend to like Guatemalan, East African, Brazilian, and Vietnamese coffees more than Costa Rican.

That's fine there are many great coffees, I've tried all you mentioned; and for me I'm fine coffees from costa Rica; I've read reviews that say Costa Rican coffees are too balanced as if it were a bad thing for me it makes a coffee that I can drink every day and all day as it is also naturally somewhat lower in caffeine than many others.

geno wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2020 5:12 pm

YankeeTarheel wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:40 pm I tend to like Guatemalan, East African, Brazilian, and Vietnamese coffees more than Costa Rican.

That's fine there are many great coffees, I've tried all you mentioned; and for me I'm fine coffees from costa Rica; I've read reviews that say Costa Rican coffees are too balanced as if it were a bad thing for me it makes a coffee that I can drink every day and all day as it is also naturally somewhat lower in caffeine than many others.

I agree--I don't drink coffee reviews...I know what I like, and what my better half likes. I only trust one set of taste buds when it comes to coffee, and I carry them wherever I go!

We buy beans from Equal Exchange, Organic French Roast 10lb.

Tasty brew, guaranteed to wake yer ass up. 40oz. French press.

SR

I used to but I could never really taste the difference between different beans and when it came down to it I don't really care all that much what coffee I drink as long as it wakes me up in the morning.

Beer brewing is more my cup of tea.

offensivename wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2020 7:50 pm I used to but I could never really taste the difference between different beans and when it came down to it I don't really care all that much what coffee I drink as long as it wakes me up in the morning.

Beer brewing is more my cup of tea.

Not much for tea myself. Ethiopian has a wonderful winey aroma. Guatemalan is nuttier. Love 'em both!

Raw beans in small batches - use cast iron skillet, but requires constant stirring - can use StirCrazy popcorn popper for small batches, too. If only coffee tasted as good as it smells when roasting or brewing, all would be good.

Wino wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:15 pm Raw beans in small batches - use cast iron skillet, but requires constant stirring - can use StirCrazy popcorn popper for small batches, too. If only coffee tasted as good as it smells when roasting or brewing, all would be good.

I can always taste how it will taste from how roasted coffee smells.

Some coffee memories.
The Deli.

Illy Coffee.

The Koffee Kup.

My wife said this morning: "Do we have enough coffee" (we have over 15 pounds of beans). So I ordered 6 more 5# bags of beans from Swingscoffee.com, Guatemalan, Ethiopian, and Kenyan. They didn't have their usual Brazilian, or Vietnamese, and they only had Zimbabwe coffee in 12 ounce bags. Gouging for #4 brown filters on Amazon is rampant.

Roasting using Presto air popcorn machine. Currently have two different Guatemalan, Brazil Peaberry and Nicaraguan Maragogype. I'll keep going as long as I can cause the flavors beat the hell out of anything I've bought from Sam's, Costco or local grocer. The two current Guatemalan as different from the other, but both smell and flavor are to die for. Peaberry a bit bitter, but should have stopped roast before heavy second snap.
I do a pound of beans at a time, 2/3rds to 3/4 cup at a time. All beans vac packed after receiving bulk pack, in one pound batches. Have it pretty much down to a science, but have to do early AM or over heating popper causes delays. Do all on patio, since it makes such a mess from husk when on stove top fry pan. Regardless, it has made coffee drinking much more fun and allows experimenting with varying roast. Have about 20-25 lbs of raw coffee in various types.
Have two burr grinders - Compresso and a Mr. Coffee (latter is a PITA), but it quit doing timed grinds and have to continually push run button to grind, then it starts to remember the time grind and have to shut off. Also have a small Braun blade grinder I use from time to time for small brews. Also have an old hand crank bowl /burr grinder set for coarse I use for my French Press.
Still buy Cafe Bustelo for my Espresso vintage stovetop pot and a Espresso steam/foamer, but can't remember brand. I had an old Cory vac coffee maker, but broke that puppy - it really was a good brewer, Bought a smaller off brand version, but broke that one, too. and haven't replaced.

Again, a shout out for Equal Exchange. Beans & more.

Organic, fair trade, many origins.

https://shop.equalexchange.coop/collections/coffee

SR

Had to resurrect my 80's circa espresso 1 cup last time I read this thread. Foamer was clogged. We only do cold brewed from self ground these days for our iced coffee in the morning.
Those espresso K cup things are nice and convenient but I have yet to buy one.

Wow this thread is back from the dead. My very used I-Roast was on its last legs when I found an unusual range top roaster on Craigslist last summer. Found some info about it online, which seemed like positive, so I bought it. Found out that for all the design they had put into it; there was nothing to agitate the beans in the drum which resulted in a very uneven roast. Even if you took it off the fire and shook it as suggested by folks online.
Rather than risk ruining the original drum, I used some copper sheet metal I had to make a second drum, with a blade to agitate the beans. Works very well now as well as
having something of a steampunk look to it.

The new drum.

If I couldn't see the beans, I'd burn batches. That's what I like about the air popper - beans visible allowing me to see actual roast darkness, even with my deafness I can hear snaps. I stir constantly using wooden spoon handle as that gives me better overall bean roast and removes near all chaff. Air popper is on the cheap compared to other roasters, provided it doesn't die on me, but inexpensive enough to buy another. I'm guessing I've roasted about 10-15 lbs. of beans since starting with Presto air popper late 2021. Set up gear on patio, roasting to complete cool down is about 45-60 minutes for a lb. Have a couple of lidded crock jars that hold one pound of roasted beans for degassing and storage.
What has surprised me is that fresh roasted coffee smells like it tastes. On roast days, my kitchen/den smell wonderful whilst beans degas.

I like the smell of coffee, just never got addicted to it. Also the acid in coffee never agreed with my stomach. I do understand coffee addicts.

I've been using air poppers (that I have to modify) for roasting going on 10 years. I go through one a year. But then I prefer darker roasts, and thus require exposing the cheap litte fire traps to higher temperatures than they were designed for. I also roast outside because it gets pretty smokey. So far I guess I've spent about ⅔ the $ that a relatively cheap roaster (that removes the chaff as effectively) costs.

Certainly I'd like one of the high end home roasters, but they run what about 100x of these air poppers cost.

And spouse wouldn't stand for it. She permitted the acquisition of a Barzata burr grinder in '08 and a couple of Bee House ceramic filter devices...ya see, our deal is the same as the acquisition of musical instruments, I get to spend only what I make using them, to acquire more of them...

And I don't roast for profit.

Wino wrote: Fri Sep 02, 2022 9:30 am If I couldn't see the beans, I'd burn batches.

The blowers on my first two air roasters were so loud, I couldn't hear the cracks; I had to watch them to know when it got to where I usually roast to, about full city+. This roaster is very quiet, just a small gear noise, it is possible to pull it off and take a quick look inside; but I've learned that I can tell where the roast is, by the amount of smoke I'm seeing about 15-30 seconds after the second crack ends.
This roaster was cheap compared to most of those on the market. I paid $45 for it, and the copper I had for years, the copper rivets were my only purchase to build the new drum, as I was nearly out of them.
Like you, I've roasted outside almost since I first started, after my very 1st roast, the house was pretty smokey. I tried to duct the smoke to our exhaust fan with some success and a lot of inconvenience.
I make about a cup and a half of beans per roast, and it takes about 14 minutes a roast, and I usually do two roasts every six days or so. What I read about the roaster said it can do two cups of green beans, but the roasting takes longer, and I don't think it improves the final taste. I use my 1st roaster to cool the beans, the heating element died, but its blower is still strong.
Last year's 50lb. bag of beans lasted me about 11 months, which is about 40-42 lbs. after roasting; but we seem to be using the beans I got in May a bit faster, not sure why. But I do always give some to friends. I think the cost was about 10% more than last years.

So how long do green coffee beans last compared to roasted?

tonguengroover wrote: Fri Sep 02, 2022 2:55 pm So how long do green coffee beans last compared to roasted?

I've bought a sixty-six lb. bag of beans once that was already a year since harvest and roasted it over the next year and didn't have any noticeable loss of freshness and favor, they were in a sealed foil-type heavy bag. But I have purchased in everything from large resealable plastic bags to burlap in the past.
I keep them in a Rubbermaid container 20 gallons (I think) in my garage dark and dry, temp varies to the time of year. Roasted beans should degas a day or two, this coffee I'm roasting seems to have a sweet spot after degassing for five or six days but I rarely roast that far out. I managed to do it twice after reading a review online that mentioned that's what he had found. But roasted beans really start to lose freshness after about two weeks, I know a lot of people have different ways of storing coffee, but I don't think any really do much.
Even without degassing fresh roasted coffee is superior to stale coffee. I was sold the first time I tasted fresh roast and it was roasted that day for us.
My wife and I volunteered for about ten days in 2001, helping to build a Strawbale house in Montana; we were camped at the site, with about 30 other folks and a guy from Seattle had brought a roaster he and some business associates had built. It roasted probably two lbs. of beans, and the coffee was made in one of those oversized coffee pots like you'd see in a church dining room. Still, it was delicious, not just the best camp coffee I've ever had, some of the best coffee I've ever had. I started roasting occasionally a couple years later, and constantly since about 2015.